Battle at the Binary Stars
' |image= |series= |production= |producer(s)= |story=Bryan Fuller |script=Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts |director=Adam Kane |imdbref=tt5835712 |guests=Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou, Mary Chieffo as L'Rell, James Frain as Sarek, Kenneth Mitchell as Kol, Chris Obi as T'Kuvma, Terry Serpico as Brett Anderson and Sam Vartholomeos as Danby Connor |previous_production=The Vulcan Hello |next_production=Context is for Kings |episode=DSC S01E02 |airdate= 24 September 2017 |previous_release=The Vulcan Hello |next_release=Context is for Kings |story_date(s)=1207.3 (May 11 2256/2249) |previous_story=The Vulcan Hello |next_story=Context is for Kings }} Summary Previously Stardate 1207.3 (May 11th, 2256): While Klingon leader T'Kuvma announces that he is going to reunite the different houses of his people against a common enemy, the Federation, Captain Philippa Georgiou and Commander Michael Burnham of the USS Shenzhou help the non-humanoid Crepusculans, whose planet suffers from a drought, by covertly opening a well for them. After this the Shenzhou proceeds to a subspace relay at the edge of Federation space, near a binary star with intense radiation, which may have been damaged on purpose by an object hidden inside a scattering field. When Burnham takes an environmental suit to investigate the alien artifact., she is welcomed by what turns out to be a Klingon warrior that attacks her with a bat'leth. Burnham fires her thrusters and rams the bat'leth into the body of the Klingon, the so-called Torchbearer, whose body is recovered by his comrades, led by T'Kuvma. who accepts an albino Klingon named Voq as the new Torchbearer. On the Shenzhou, Burnham wakes up in a medical pod but interrupts the procedure to heal her radiation burns, in order to warn Captain Georgiou of the arrival of the Klingons. Although there is no evidence, Georgiou trusts Burnham's words and calls for reinforcements, while Burnham calls her foster father Sarek, who adopted her after her parents had been killed in a Klingon raid on the research outpost Doctari Alpha, to seek his advice how to deal with the Klingons. Burnham comes back to the bridge with a quite unusual proposal: to fire first, in order to earn the respect of the enemy, which Georgiou declines. In the captain's ready room, Burnham disables Georgiou with a Vulcan neck pinch and orders the bridge crew to prepare the attack, only for Georgiou to return with a phaser, just as many Klingon vessels drop out of warp. Conclusion Seven years ago, Captain Georgiou welcomed Michael Burnham, the only human to attend the Vulcan Learning Center and the Vulcan Science Academy, aboard her ship. She became Burnham's mentor. Now it is her sad duty to confine Burnham to the brig. As several more Starfleet ships appear in the area, Georgiou calls the Klingon leader and tells him that Starfleet comes in peace. T'Kuvma calls this a lie. He convinces the other house leaders that the Federation wants to assimilate the Klingons. The Klingons open fire. During the battle, the wounded and confused Ensign Connor comes to the brig to seek Burnham's advice, but he gets blown out into space when the hull breaches. Sarek appears in Burnham's mind, telling her that she carries part of his katra. Sarek actually saved Burnham with a mind meld when she was a child. The USS Europa with Admiral Anderson appears on the scene and tractors away the Shenzhou that is adrift in space. Anderson proposes a cease-fire to T'Kuvma. The Klingon leader agrees, but then rams the Federation ship with the cloaked vessel, upon which Anderson activates the self-destruct. The other Klingon ships warp away after their victory, leaving only T'Kuvma's vessel. While Burnham prepares her escape from the heavily damaged brig, Georgiou and Saru wonder how they can attack T'Kuvma's ship although the Shenzhou's weapons are down. They devise a plan to steer a work pod with a photon torpedo into the enemy vessel, a suicide mission for which Georgiou volunteers. Burnham appears and advises against killing T'Kuvma because this would make him a martyr in the eyes of his people. When the crew witnesses how the Klingons tractor in the bodies of dead warriors, they plant an antimatter charge into a body and detonate it inside the enemy ship. Georgiou and Burnham beam over to apprehend T'Kuvma. But T'Kuvma kills Georgiou, whereupon Burnham kills T'Kuvma. On the court martial, Burnham pleads guilty. She is stripped of rank and sentenced to imprisonment for life. Errors and Explanations Internet Movie Database Continuity # None of the Klingons in this episode looks like the ones of TOS or TMP, although we see members of several houses. Very few of the Klingon ships of the 24 houses look remotely like familiar Klingon types. Regarding the Klingons, Discovery is a total visual reboot so far. The Starfleet ships don't fit into the established design lineage. Unfortunately the most prominent vessel, the Shenzhou, is also the biggest disappointment. The Shenzhou has tapered angular nacelles, additional spikes, odd-angled hull plates and an overall streamlined shape, totally like other official and non-official 24th century designs by John Eaves. The Shenzhou is explicitly said to be an old ship but it is among the sleekest designs of the series. The USS Europa is similarly unfitting for the era. Some other Starfleet ships are more simplistic in shape, including extremely boxy nacelles, which *could* insinuate that they are not the most recent designs if it were not for the Shenzhou. Several visual styles and several design features are taken from the Abramsverse and shouldn't exist in the Prime Universe in this form or at this time: bridge windows, 23rd century ships capable of landing, ship and handheld phasers firing pulses instead of continuous beams, ships popping out of warp in an instant, the warp flight effect with "turbulences". The Klingons have cloaking technology in 2256, although cloaking is a previously unknown and probably new feature on their ships in Star Trek III. Perhaps we have to apply the same (lame) explanation that, just as the Romulan cloaking in ENT: Minefield, a "scattering field" is something less advanced? The Klingons appear to have purple blood, apparently in an attempt to find a compromise between red and pink.All of these could be further evidence that DSC is set in a different version of the Prime Universe. Factual errors # When Michael was talking to the Sarek hologram from Vulcan. Sarek makes the comment "there are reports of a new star in the quadrant..." which is an obvious reference to the extremely bright "communication signal" sent out by the Klingon ship. In Star Trek canon, a quadrant is one ¼ of the galaxy, which is ENORMOUS. These quadrants are made of many sectors, each many light years across. Even if our own sun went nova, our nearest stellar neighbor at Alpha Centauri would not know about it for 4 years, so for Sarek to know a mere few minutes later of the bright "blast" seen from the Klingon ship is... illogical. As stated elsewhere, Sarek could be using a subspace based viewing system. EAS Nitpicking # The storm was still 1h 17min away according to Michael Burnham, but wouldn't it have engulfed most of the Starfleet emblem made of footsteps in a dust cloud, by the time Georgiou and Burnham arrive at their starting point again? Wouldn't the wind that was already strong while they were walking have blown it away altogether? Depends on the depth of the footsteps! # Real-time communication with Starfleet is possible from the edge of Federation space? Maybe with one relay destroyed the Shenzhou is close enough to other relays. # Does it make sense that T'Kuvma is so worried about the purity of the Klingons when his people has been in a 100-year-long isolation anyway? Yes – there is an increased risk of interbreading! # It takes barely ten minutes from the sending of the pulse to the simultaneous arrival of all 24 ships of the Klingon house leaders. This is only possible if all ships were expecting T'Kuvma's call, in some place near the binary stars (no matter if the leaders were personally aboard their ships or not). But there is no indication that they had received an advance notice. On the contrary, when T'Kuvma first contacts the other leaders after the arrival of the ships, they are surprised to see T'Kuvma and more than skeptical about his plan. Perhaps it only seems like ten minutes! # It is rather ridiculous anyway that in an empire that is more like a loose alliance of 24 warlords who also fight each other, a 25th one, an outsider, needs nothing more than a fabricated incident and a few phrases to convince all 24 colleagues (perhaps except for Kol) to join his crusade on the spot. Isn’t that similar to how Christianity started? Category:EpisodesCategory:Discovery